Mix sugar, cocoa, and lard. Add hot water and milk. Add rest of ingredients, mixing well. Pour in two 9 x 13 pans or one 11 x 15 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes if using the 9 x 13 pans, (or until a toothpick comes out clean), or 45 minutes for an 11 x 15 inch pan. Frost with your favorite frosting.

Easy Penuche Icing

1/2 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup milk
1 ¾ cup powdered sugar

Melt butter, then add brown sugar and boil 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add milk and bring back to a boil. Remove from heat and cool to lukewarm. Add powdered sugar a little at a time, beating, until it is creamy. It is stiff to spread on cake. You may want to freeze cake first before applying frosting. Add chopped pecans on top if desired or if the frosting turns out lumpy!

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Several years ago I helped test recipes for a cookbook called Gather Round the Amish Table—similar to the name for a fun new feature, Gather ‘Round, here at Amish Wisdom, I noticed. The name is perhaps an inviting metaphor for the fellowship and great family times which can happen when gathered around a hearth or table.

Many Amish families tend to be on the large size with 8, 10 and even 12 children. Therefore many recipes in Amish cookbooks tend to be on the large size as well.

Amish recipes also often lean toward being a little vague on directions, because the compilers assume a certain amount of kitchen know-how. The project editor for Gather Round the Amish Table had several questions she needed answered. She could not reach out to the recipe submitters because they did not submit last names with their recipes in an earlier version of the cookbook, Countryside Cooking and Chatting: Traditional Recipes and Wisdom from Amish & Mennonites (compiled by Lucy Leid)—out of modesty and their particular community’s tradition.

Making penuche icing

I chose to test a chocolate cake. This recipe is extra moist and especially delicious with penuche frosting (pronounced pa-new-chi, a rich brown sugar/butter frosting). So the questions I needed to test were: Cooking time and what size of pan to use? The way it was written sounded like it was for one pan, but the recipe called for 6 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar, enough for two normal cakes!

Indeed it was a huge amount of batter, needing a large mixing bowl, my quart-sized measuring cup and an 11 x 15-inch baking pan. When I asked my friends whether anyone had an 11 x 15-inch pan, no one did. So I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond and got a huge lasagna pan because I could imagine several uses for the pan in the future. So, uncharacteristically for me, I bought it. (I’m slow to purchase new kitchen items for myself and put things like spatulas and potholders on my Christmas list.)

11×15 cake pan

Two key differences in this recipe is that it calls for no eggs, and lard. Of course other shortening can be substituted.

We all run out of eggs from time to time. Amish cooks who often have their own laying hens know why there is a definite need for recipes without eggs: chickens, go through a hormone change resulting in a molting period (where they get a break from laying eggs) maybe 6-8 weeks long in fall or winter.

I also have a similar recipe for chocolate cake which doesn’t call for eggs in my cookbook, Whatever Happened to Dinner?Recipes and Reflections for Family Mealtime (Herald Press, 2010), “Sheri’s Chocolate Cake.” So if you need a monster cake for the soccer team, a potluck at church, a cake for a funeral dinner, soup kitchen, or other large feeding program, below is a great recipe. Or, if you bake it in two 9 x 13-inch pans, you can eat one and freeze one—it freezes well.

Come back next week to get the recipe for Ruth’s Chocolate No-Egg Cake! Plus, leave a comment below to enter to win a copy of Whatever Happened to Dinner!

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Stop by Monday’s Book Nook to get the scoop on Beth Wiseman’s new release, “Love Bears All Things!”

My love for homemade bread began at a very young age, and there has always been only one recipe that rose high above all the others (pardon the pun) . . . my grandmother’s. Years ago, I tried to perfect the recipe, but failed miserably. Over the past few weeks, I gave MaMa’s recipes another try. Anyone who makes homemade bread from scratch knows that it’s all in the kneading.

So, I did what anyone trying to perfect an art would do; I watched YouTube videos. I’m happy to report that after two more attempts, I have finally perfected my grandmother’s bread. I can feel her smiling at me from heaven, and I know she’d be happy for me to share my findings.

Leta Mae’s Homemade Bread:

1/3 cup sugar 2 cups whole milk

1/3 cup Crisco ½ cup luke warm water

2 pkgs. dry yeast 5 or 6 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

Scald milk (yes, I watched a video on the best way to scald milk too), pour over Crisco and sugar. Let cool. Dissolve dry yeast in luke warm water and stir until dissolved. Mix salt with flour. Mix with Crisco, sugar, milk, and yeast. Mix all ingredients until it pulls away from the side of the bowl. Pour on a floured board. Knead, then put in bowl, and let rise until double in size. Knead again, put back in bowl, let it rise again, and take out. Knead one last time, then put in two greased pans. Let it rise a third time. Cook in preheated 375 oven for about 25 minutes or until brown. Take out and brush with melted butter or margarine.

BETH’S NOTES:

First Kneading – 7 minutes, let rise for 1 hour

Second Kneading – 5 minutes, let rise for 45 minutes

Third Kneading – Knead for 2 minutes, let rise for 1 hour

Each oven will vary, but I baked the two loaves for 21 minutes

Kneading is key, so I watched chefs on YouTube kneading bread. And yes, there is a way to do it that produces these results. Good luck and enjoy!

Beth Wiseman is the best-selling author of over 1.3 million books, and she was the recipient of the prestigious Carol Award in 2011 and 2013. She is also a three-time winner of the Inspirational Readers Choice Award, and in 2013 she took home the coveted Holt Medallion.

As a former newspaper reporter, Beth was honored by her peers with eleven journalism awards, including first place news writing for The Texas Press Association. She left her job as a journalist in 2008 to write novels full time.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the post above may be “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.” Read full privacy policy here.

More-with-Less has given generations of cooks simple, healthy recipes that are gentle on the budget and mindful of those who are hungry. This 40th anniversary edition preserves hundreds of timeless recipes and tips from Doris Janzen Longacre’s bestselling cookbook, along with lay-flat binding, new recipes, and updated information by award-winning food writer Rachel Marie Stone.

Doris Janzen Longacre home economist, theologian, and advocate for the world’s hungry, wrote the More-with-Less cookbook, which as sold nearly one-million copies, and Living More-with-Less

Rachel Marie Stone is author of Eat with Joy and is a member of the editorial board of Christianity Today. She is a regular columnist for theEnglewood Review of Books, and her work has been published in Christianity Today, Christian Century,Sojourners, and OnFaith.

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In the Pinecraft Pie Shop fiction series, you’ll discover inspiring stories about sweet sisters… along with an assortment of yummy recipes to try! This recipe from the newest release, Sewn with Joy, is for cinnamon rolls with caramel icing—the perfect treat for an autumn morning or for surprising the kids after school. Enjoy!

Cook pudding and milk according to package directions. Add butter and let set until lukewarm. Meanwhile, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water until foamy. Combine pudding mixture with eggs, salt, oil, and yeast mixture. Mix well. Gradually add enough flour to make a soft and somewhat sticky dough. Knead well. Place back in bowl and cover with towel. Let rise 45 minutes. Roll out onto clean countertop. Spread with generous amount of melted butter and cover with brown sugar and cinnamon. Roll up and cut into 1½-inch pieces. Place in greased baking pans. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown. Frost with caramel icing (recipe below).

Caramel Icing

Ingredients:

½ cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
¼ cup milk
2 cups confectioners’ sugar

Directions:

In a small saucepan, bring butter, sugar, and milk to a boil. Cook over medium heat for two minutes. Cool and then stir in confectioners’ sugar.

For more recipes and a story worth savoring, don’t miss Sewn with Joy

Sometimes Dreams Come Together One Piece at a Time

Joy Miller wanted nothing more than to be a wife and mother—especially now that her relationship with Matthew Slagel, the bishop’s son, was deepening. But when a television crew rolls into Pinecraft, Florida, to film a new show about the Amish, tension threatens to rip apart their relationship…and the entire Amish community.

Joy is initially hired to sew costumes for the show, but she soon finds herself becoming increasingly involved in the production—a fact that upsets Matthew and his father. Yet the more Joy befriends the Englisch production crew, the more she senses God working in their lives through her. Can she turn her back on this opportunity to share God’s love? Will she and Matthew somehow be able to stitch together their dreams for the future?

Experience love, heartbreak, and hope in this sweet story of two worlds uniting in unexpected ways.

Tricia Goyer is a homeschooling mom of ten, grandmother of two, and wife to John. A USA Today bestselling author, Tricia has published over 55 books and is well-known for her Big Sky and Seven Brides for Seven Bachelors Amish series.

Sherry Gore is the author of Simply Delicious Amish Cooking and Me, Myself, and Pie and is a weekly scribe for the Budget, a nationwide Amish newspaper. Sherry has three children and is a member of a Beachy Amish Mennonite church in Sarasota, Florida.

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I first heard of Amish Wedding Nothings from my colleague, Lovina Eicher, author of the syndicated newspaper column, Lovina’s Amish Kitchen. (MennoMedia/Herald Press began syndicating her long -running column in 2014, and she had given us the opportunity to publish her next cookbook in 2017!)

Last August (2015) Lovina’s oldest daughter, Elizabeth, got married (well-documented on the blog we keep for her column, here). Lovina mentioned how she had wanted to serve this delicate wedding pastry then, but didn’t get it done. It is common to have “Nothings” as a type of appetizer or snack set out to decorate the tables while people wait for their food at the dinner or lunch following a wedding in certain Amish communities.

This August, her second-oldest daughter, Susan, got married. The family and Lovina especially were delighted to include this special wedding custom from the community where she grew up near Berne, Indiana.

I tried the recipe myself earlier this summer and had fun making them. I would recommend them for a holiday weekend breakfast (Labor Day coming up?) or other special occasion where you have time to fuss and fry these up–and have fun with children decorating them with various types of sugar, whether white granulated, powdered, or a cinnamon flavored sugar. They’re not quite as much of a challenge as homemade donuts or funnel cakes, but do take some time. We shared these fresh warm pastries with our neighbors across the road!

*The above photos were taken by Ruth Boss at an Amish wedding

Amish Wedding Nothings

Please note: the first item on each list is exactly the way the recipe was given to me from Lovina, which Lovina got of course from her own mother. The additions in ( ) came from online sources that gave some exact quantities, along with the step-by-step directions.

Beat egg and stir in cream, salt, and enough flour to make elastic dough. Make 6 or 7 balls out of the dough. Roll out each ball of dough into very flat and thin circles, about 1/16″ thick.

Cut three one inch or so slits, one above the other, in the middle of the circles.

Heat shortening in a large kettle over high heat (or use an electric frying pan with a temperature control.) When the shortening is 365 degrees F, try testing a piece of dough to see if it cooks or sizzles; put the rolled out “Nothing” into the kettle or fry pan (fry one at a time, unless you have a huge kettle). Turn each piece over with two forks or large spatula once it turns golden on the bottom. Remove from oil and place on plate covered with paper towels to drain.

Sprinkle powder sugar over top while warm. Stack all the nothings on top of each other to serve.

P.S. We tried these with plain white sugar, powdered sugar, cinnamon powdered sugar, and white sugar with cinnamon. All go well with milk or coffee!

If you would like to see Lovina’s weekly column, “Lovina’s Amish Kitchen” published in a local newspaper, send me an editor’s name and name of paper you think might be interested. Send to melodied@mennomedia.org. We’ll be happy to contact them!

If you are on Facebook, Lovina has a growing following, nearing 3,000! Sign up here!

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The newest book in the Honeybee Sisters series, Like a Bee to Honey, comes out on August 30, and I am as excited as a bee on a honeysuckle bush! Rose Christner, the youngest of the Honeybee sisters, is timid and cautious, but she’s not shy in the kitchen.

One of Rose’s favorite recipes is Honey Whole Wheat Pancakes, which she makes for Josiah Yoder and his energetic nephews in Like a Bee to Honey. Honey Peach Syrup is definitely something Rose would make to go over her pancakes—especially this time of the year when the peaches are ready!

This is a simple recipe with only three ingredients, and it looks, smells, and tastes delicious. This recipe makes enough for my husband and I to be in pancake heaven with just a little left over. If you are baking for a crowd, I would recommend quadrupling this recipe.

Honey Peach Syrup

2 ½ cup diced peaches
¼ cup honey
½ tablespoon lemon juice

Peel peaches and dice. Put peaches in a medium saucepan and stir in honey and lemon juice. Turn stove to medium-high and mash ingredients together with a potato masher while heating.

Unless the peaches are extremely ripe, they won’t mash down all the way. That’s okay because you’re going to put them in a blender. (If you’re Amish and don’t use electricity, your syrup is going to be a little lumpy.) Once the peaches are slightly broken down and blended well with the honey, bring the mixture just to a boil and remove from stove. Transfer mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into a clean saucepan.

Taste the syrup. Add honey if you want it sweeter. Heat over medium-low heat to a low boil, boiling until the mixture reaches syrup stage, stirring frequently so it doesn’t burn on the bottom. 10 to 15 minutes. The mixture will start to look slightly translucent. Serve warm over pancakes, waffles, or ice cream. In the unlikely event that you have leftover syrup, store in the refrigerator. Delicious! (Adapted from triedandtasty.com)

This pancake recipe appears at the back of Like a Bee to Honey. It is my favorite breakfast recipe.

Step 2: Put the buttermilk in the blender and turn the blender to the highest speed. Slowly pour the whole-wheat kernels into the blender. It will sound like popcorn popping. Blend until the popping sound is gone. Add cornmeal, eggs, honey, and salt.

Step 3: After mixing well, add baking soda and baking powder and blend for 20 seconds. The batter will rise fast! Pour dollops of batter onto hot griddle and brown on both sides.

Jennifer Beckstrand is the RITA nominated and award-winning author of the Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series. She loves writing about the plain Amish life and the antics of Anna and Felty Helmuth. She and her husband live in Utah and have four daughters and two sons.

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In my new Amish romance series, The Honeybee Sisters, the three Christner schwesters are all grown up and ready for romance to find them. The sisters also keep bees and make all sorts of delicious treats with the honey they pull from their beehives.

Sweet as Honey, the first book in the Honeybee Sisters series, came out this week. A Bee in Her Bonnet releases at the end of July, and Like a Bee to Honey will be in stores at the end of August. It’s going to be a romantic and delicious summer!

The following recipe is from The Honeybee Sisters Cookbook, a companion book to the Honeybee Sisters series. The Honeybee Sisters Cookbook comes out on July 11, and is full of honey recipes and lots of yummy pictures. Be sure to look for it on amazon.com.

Bee’s Knees Corn Dogs

Begin by preheating 4 cups canola oil in a deep, heavy pot on medium low. Heating gradually helps maintain a steady temperature. Heat oil to 375°, adjusting heat to hold temperature. In a deep bowl, whisk dry ingredients together. Add water, egg, and honey. Mix together with rubber spatula until mostly smooth. The batter will be quite thick and should hold its shape when you run your finger down the center. If the batter is too thin, it won’t stick to the hot dog. You can easily adjust by adding more water or more pancake mix until you get the right consistency.

Push the lollipop stick about 2/3 of the way into the hot dog. Dip the hot dog into batter, covering completely.

Carefully set into hot oil, turning with tongs until the batter starts to brown. Don’t let the corn dog touch the bottom of the pot. (It should stay buoyant.) You may add up to 3 corn dogs to the pot, but add one at a time and make sure they start to develop a crust before you add more. Continue turning so the corn dogs brown evenly. Cook until the corn dog is a deep golden brown. Remove and drain onto paper towel. For an extra touch of sweetness, drizzle a small amount of honey over the corn dog and serve with mustard.

This will easily make 24 pups. If you want to use the extra batter, you can thin with milk or water and use for pancakes. Or drop teaspoons of batter into the hot oil and brown like doughnut holes. Roll in cinnamon and sugar or powdered sugar immediately after removing from oil.

Jennifer Beckstrand is the RITA nominated and award-winning author of the Matchmakers of Huckleberry Hill series. She loves writing about the plain Amish life and the antics of Anna and Felty Helmuth. She and her husband live in Utah and have four daughters and two sons.

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One of the things I love about writing the Pinecraft Pieshop Series is all the wonderful food that finds itself withing the pages of these novels. Here is a recipe for Banana Sour Cream Banana bread. Can you say? YUM!

Preheat over to 325 degrees. Grease four small or one large loaf pan. In a small bowl, combine ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Use cinnamon-sugar mixture to dust pan. In large bowl, cream butter, three cups of sugar, eggs bananas, sour cream, vanilla, and remaining cinnamon. Mix in salt, baking soda, and flour. Stir in nuts. Bake 1 hour, covering loaves with foil the last 15 minutes of baking time.

Want to read a scrumptious story and get tasty recipes? Grab a copy of Planted with Hopetoday!

A Dash of Love, a Pinch of Hope, and a Whole Lot of Good Cooking

In the second installment of the Pinecraft Pie Shop series, you’ll return to a town and a family you’ve already grown to love.

When Hope Miller is offered the plot of land behind the Me, Myself, and Pie shop to start a garden, she jumps at the chance. Finally—some space away from her four sisters! But everyone in town seems to have an opinion about what she should grow and how she should grow it. When the widower schoolteacher, Jonas Sutter, asks if his students at the Amish school can help turn the plot into a community garden, Hope only halfheartedly agrees, wondering if she will ever get the peace and quiet she craves. And will she get anything to grow?

The stories of friendship, community, and unexpected love within these pages will plant real seeds of hope within your heart.

Tricia Goyer is a homeschooling mom of ten, grandmother of two, and wife to John. A bestselling author, Tricia has published 50 books to date and has written more than 500 articles. She is a two time Carol Award winner, as well as a Christy and ECPA Award Nominee. Tricia is also on the blogging team at TheBetterMom.com, FortheFamily.com and other homeschooling and Christian sites. Tricia volunteers around her community and mentors teen moms. She is the founder of Hope Pregnancy Ministries in Northwestern Montana, and she currently leads a Teen MOPS Group in Little Rock, AR.

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Welcome back to the Amish Wisdom Reader Bag—reader questions answered by fellow readers, a virtual bulletin board. If anyone in the Amish Wisdom community knows the answer, leave a comment on the post!

Does anyone have suggestions for this reader question:

Does anyone have an Amish recipe for Cherry Bread? I made one I found online and it wasn’t what I was looking for.

Beverly Duell-Moore

Have a question of your own? Shoot an email here, and make sure to put “Reader Bag” in the subject line.

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